Her Final Wish
by littlesparrow33
Summary: It's happened... Alice has to make her third wish. What will she do? (Just a short "what if?")


**-Disclaimer-** I do not own any of the characters, language, plots, or locations from _Once Upon a Time in Wonderland_. ABC and its writers hold all rights to _Once Upon a Time in Wonderland_ and this story is only created for pleasure, not profit.

Author's Note: Please enjoy!

Her Final Wish

"I'm so sorry, Cyrus," Alice sobbed. After waiting so long to see her beautiful face again, the moment was nothing but bittersweet for Cyrus. Alice was crumpled to the bottom of her cage, tears falling down her cheeks as she looked at him. Jafar was standing on the ledge of his dungeon, looking smug and watching the suffering of his newest prisoner. Cyrus wasn't sure how she found him, but the end result was Alice in the cage next to his as well as her companion, the Knave of Hearts, in the one above. The knave alternated between glaring at the sorcerer and staring at the Red Queen, who had been knocked unconscious and bound by Jafar.

All of that fell into the background, however, as he stared at his Alice—he ached to reach for her, but the silver bars of his cage prevented him from moving any closer. And the whole time, he felt the pieces of his heart slowly breaking, for now that they were both under Jafar's power, there was no way to avoid making her wish. He didn't know what had compelled her to make the first two, though he could guess that Jafar had made every effort to make her life a misery to do it. What mattered now was getting her out of here, and steeling himself for the eternity of lost love ahead.

"I know, Alice," he soothed. "I know. But it's finally time." At this, she sat up and pressed herself against the bars, getting as close to him as she could. It made his heart twinge to see the fierce expression on her face, even now.

"After everything, you know that I would do whatever I could to stop this," Alice steadied herself and looked at him as she did long ago, under the towering tumtum tree. "But I cannot stand by and watch him hurt you," she glanced at Jafar, but kept her focus on Cyrus.

"It's ok, Alice. Please, just wish yourself away from here," he urged her on, just pleading with her to listen. Despite the pain ahead, it would be so much worse for her to be anywhere near the power-hungry man below. "Please, Alice, just be safe."

The tears continued to fall as she took a deep breath. "I promised you, Cyrus. I promised that I would never move on from you. And I will keep that promise—do you believe me?"

"Oh, Alice," …_you shouldn't, _he thought. _You should do everything you can to forget me and what our love brought you._ But he couldn't say that. Not to her. "I believe you. And I will never move on from you."

She nodded, as she wiped away her tears, "Then you should know that I made you another promise, even though I never told you."

Now he felt uneasy. Cyrus of all people knew how determined Alice could be when she set her mind to it. "What promise?"

"I promised myself, and you, that you would never have to return to that bottle. I promised that you would never have to live that loneliness for years at a time ever again." His uneasiness grew to worry. They had talked about wishing for his freedom before, in depth, and he thought she had understood that such a wish came with a high cost. She smiled at him, "Cyrus, I intend to keep that promise."

"But, Alice…"

"I wish," she began, and Cyrus felt the magic of the final wish come alive. "I wish that I could take your place—that I were the genie of the bottle, and not you."

"No!" the word had barely left his lips when he felt the magic take hold. The sheer energy of such a wish made the whole dungeon shake and he even saw a startled Jafar fall back in his periphery. No doubt the sorcerer had not been expecting anything like this. But all Cyrus could do was look at Alice. There was a bright flash and then she vanished in a purple smoke, streaking toward that bottle that had been left on the table near the doors.

And then it stopped. Cyrus could no longer hold back and rushed to the bars, reaching for the bottle and calling on his magic to return him, to take it back. But nothing happened. Not even the pain of touching the silver and he stared at his arms in disbelief. He was mortal. She had taken his place. "Alice! Noooooo!"

A recovered Jafar walked calmly over to the bottle, picking it up, and smirking at Cyrus. "Well, this isn't quite what I had in mind, but it will work just as well."

Incensed, Cyrus began beating on the cage, "Jafar, don't you dare hurt her!"

"Or what?" Jafar laughed. "What can you do now, mortal? You are useless to her. And now, I will have what I wanted." He strode out of the room, ignoring Cyrus's curses and shaking.

It was Cyrus' turn to collapse in his cage. "Alice," he whispered. Despite knowing what misery he would have had for the rest of his days, he still would have preferred that to putting Alice in his place. No one should be a prisoner, and Jafar… well, who knew what he would do next?

There was a shuffling above him and he looked up to see the Knave looking down at him with sympathy. "I know it doesn't count for much," the Knave began, "but I'm sorry." Cyrus only shook his head and looked away. "We did send out a message before coming here," he continued, "so there's still a chance we'll be rescued today or tomorrow."

"Jafar has her now," Cyrus gritted out. "What could possibly matter beyond that?"

The Knave shifted and Cyrus heard the anger in his voice, "Alice didn't stop looking for you since the moment I told her you were alive. Don't tell me you're giving up on her now."

Cyrus looked to the doors where the sorcerer had gone. "You don't know him…"

The Knave banged on his cage. "Well maybe you don't know _her_. That is the most bloody stubborn woman I've ever met and all she cared about was getting to you." He paused, "You didn't see her when she thought you were dead. But you _know_ she's alive." He let that sink in for a moment, "So what are you going to do about it?"

Cyrus stood up and paced the cage, anger and frustration shifting through him. For the moment, he let the anger fill up the empty hole in him that appeared the moment Alice made her wish. "How long until we are rescued?"

His voice milder now, the Knave replied, "Maybe another six hours, earliest."

"Then in six hours, I'm going to find her," Cyrus declared. "And nothing will stop me."

He heard the Knave mutter something above but Cyrus tuned him out. Alice had found him and now it was his turn. He wasn't moving on from her, no matter how long it would take to get her back.

End.

qpqpqpqpqp


End file.
